Baseball and softball players frequently practice batting and refining their swing using a stationary stand or tee onto the top of which a ball is placed for hitting with a bat. The stands or tees must be sturdy enough to hold the ball in place for the batter to hit, and remain in place without tipping, or recover to vertical after the ball is hit. Such stands or tees often must be transported to new locations.
Compromises are made in construction to accommodate conflicting objectives. Some batting stands include heavy cast iron bases, sometimes shaped in the configuration of a home plate diamond. The heavy bases counteract forces on the stand to help prevent tipping, but also add substantial weight making the stands more difficult to transport. Some batting stands are made of molded plastic that is filled with ballast, again making transport less convenient. Moreover, a large-sized batting stand is more difficult to handle and transport.
Other batting stands are designed specifically for smaller children, and have molded plastic stands shaped as home plate configurations. These stands are generally lighter weight, but less stable, and therefore more subject to tipping. Still other batting stands provide tripod or other footer configurations that splay outwardly away from the stand post, making transport awkward. In some designs the tripod legs and feet are separated from the base for transport, and invariably are misplaced or broken from repeated use and transport.
Improvements to batting practice stands and t-ball batting stands continue to be sought.